Hefner

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's son-in-law has been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of using inside information to gain profits and avoid losses totaling more than $100,000 in trades of Playboy stock. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Illinois, the SEC said that William Marovitz sold shares of Playboy from 2004 to 2009 ahead of public announcements related to Iconix Brand Group Inc.'s potential acquisition of Playboy and Playboy's negative earnings announcements.

June 14, 2011 | By Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times / for the Booster Shots blog

Sad news today at the Playboy Mansion: Playmate Crystal Harris is not marrying Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, according to Hefner himself. "The wedding is off. Crystal has had a change of heart," the would-be groom, 85, tweeted earlier today. Crystal, 25, may be doing her longevity a favor. Studies show that so-called May-December weddings, which typically involve a younger woman and a much older man, are more beneficial for the husband than the wife. Men benefit greatly from having a younger spouse, studies show -- their mortality rate can drop 11% if they're just seven to nine years older than their wives, compared with husbands who are the same age as their wives.

Los Angeles County health officials said Monday that 170 people had fallen ill after a four-day conference that culminated in a fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion , but that the outbreak is not believed to have spread beyond the conference. The possible outbreak of legionellosis, or Pontiac fever, affected people connected with the DOMAINfest Global Conference held at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows in Santa Monica on Feb. 1-3, "with symptoms mostly consisting of fever, chills, general discomfort (malaise)

January 11, 2011 | By Dawn C. Chmielewski and Robert Channick, Los Angeles Times

More than a half-century after launching Playboy from his South Side Chicago apartment, Hugh Hefner is buying back the bunny. Hefner, 84, reached a deal to acquire the shares of Playboy Enterprises Inc. that he doesn't already own for $6.15 each ? an 18% premium over Friday's closing price. That brings the value of the company to about $207 million. "The brand resonates today as clearly as at any time in its 57-year history," Hefner said. "I believe this agreement will give us the resources and flexibility to return Playboy to its unique position and to further expand our business around the world.

More than 57 years after launching Playboy from his Chicago apartment, Hugh Hefner is buying back the bunny. After six months of deliberation, an improved offer to take Playboy Enterprises private at $6.15 a share passed muster with the board, which voted Sunday to return the magazine empire to its 84-year-old founder. The bid represents an 18 percent premium over Friday's closing price and values the company at about $207 million. In July, Hefner offered $5.50 a share to take the money-losing company private.

There is much to celebrate this New Year. Natalie Portman is pregnant. Hugh Hefner is engaged. Alanis Morissette is a new mom. Notice how important news usually happens in triplicate? And out of New York, usually so ignored by the American media, we have reports that Jets Coach Rex Ryan has an above-average fondness for feet. Evidently, they don't call it football for nothing. Ryan, the most folksy and likable coach in the game, is not denying the foot fetish reports, nor is he commenting much.

Break out the club keys and martini shakers: Playboy founder Hugh Hefner is alive and well, still swinging and dealing. Four months after his surprising announcement that he wanted to buy back the company to revive the fortunes of his iconic creation, Playboy's fate remains squarely in the 84-year-old's hands. Despite protracted deliberations by the Playboy Enterprises Inc. board, Hefner's $123-million bid to buy the outstanding shares of the company is still on the table.

"The Concert" moves from rowdy, broad comedy to shameless heart-tugging, but Romanian writer-director Radu Mihaileanu keeps this French production flowing buoyantly, skittering past all manner of improbabilities. Aleksei Guskov stars as Andrei Filipov, celebrated conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra, who in 1980 defies an order to dismiss all his Jewish musicians and as a result is demoted to janitor. Three decades later, he's still working as a custodian when he intercepts an e-mail to the Bolshoi director inviting the orchestra to perform at Paris' Theatre du Châtelet.

Petro Vlahos might not be a household name, but he's one of the most accomplished scientific and technical innovators in film and television. He holds more than 35 patents on equipment including camera crane motor controls, optical soundtracks and projection screens, but he's best known for creating both the analog and digital hardware and software versions of the Ultimatte compositing system. On Thursday, Bill Taylor, the governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technology Council, will host "A Conversation With Petro Vlahos" at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.